There are a great number of construction systems using prefabricated elements. Their main advantage is that they ensure easy and quick construction and allow avoiding wet processes on the construction site. Ways and means for decrease of the construction costs as well as for provision of higher rigidity of the buildings have been sought. It is also important that these systems provide great variety of architectural projects with a view to the uniqueness of the building at the same time preserving its rigidity.
Some problems have been outlined in the use of prefabricated modular elements and three-dimensional (3D) section modules in the construction. The conventional way of constructing multi-storey buildings is to arrange these modules one above of the other. This requires that each module has sufficient strength in vertical direction in order to support the weight of the modules laid above it. It is normal to look for the optimal unification of modules in order to satisfy both the strength requirements and the requirements for decrease of the element weight combined with higher economic efficiency of the construction.
A great part of the construction systems based on prefabricated modular elements use elements shaped as solid walls, floors or ceilings (for example WO2007/054512). These construction systems have the following disadvantages: a lot of material is used for them; the structures are very heavy and are not appropriate for prefabrication of 3D modular construction sections which increases the time of construction. There are construction systems made of prefabricated 3D construction modular cells which can be connected with each other in horizontal or vertical direction. For example, GB 985338, GB 1019628 and GB 1010812 disclose 3D construction modules made as a load bearing frame structures forming non-solid floor, ceiling and walls to which interior and exterior facade panels are installed in addition. The main disadvantage of such construction modules with frame structures is that a lot of material is used for their production and that they can be connected to each other by laying concrete on the joints in-situ. A lot of manual labour is used which increases the construction time. Moreover, they do not provide sufficient rigidity of the construction module. The fact that they cannot be used in the construction of interior elements such as recesses, wall cupboards, etc. is also important.
The use of different grids in construction of floors, walls, staircases, balconies, terraces, window frames or facade elements is also very common in the different construction systems. The main advantage of the grid structures is that they have very high load bearing capacity. For example, DE 803422 discloses a floor construction grid made of elongated flat elements with slots which are perpendicular to the plane and are located at equal distance from each other, and the elements intersect through the slots to form a grid. WO 2006/101413, published also as EA 011657, discloses another construction system of elongated elements with perpendicular slots at equal distances from each other, in which the elements intersect to form a grid and the elements are with square section. These types of grids can be used in the in-situ construction of buildings but they cannot be used for 3D building structures as they do not allow joining elements in height.
Well known, for example, are DE 1044380, GB 1102597, DE 20100630, US 2008/0163580, EP 0033257, GB 1102597, EP1662065 and a great number of other construction systems by means of which grid structures can be built. The elements of such systems are made of elongated flat metal elements with perpendicular slots at equal distance from each other and the elements intersect each other through the slots. The grids comprise exterior frames by which they are strengthened. They can be used in construction but they cannot be used for construction of 3D building construction modules as they do not allow joining elements in height.
Another construction system is also well known from RU 2182206 (also published as WO 02/077383) which comprises a great number of elongated flat elements of equal thickness, marked here with “c”, and each of the flat elements has slots on at least one of the long sides located at such distance from one another so that the flat elements could intersect each other through the slots in such a way so as to form a grid. The elements of this system have equal thickness which makes their unification easier. The slots of this system are, however, situated in regularly repeated groups and the distances used are 2c and 2c-300c which makes the grid structurally dependent on the thickness “c”, and subsequently—on the material used. Besides, in this system the constructed grid have sections with different dimensions and area which leads to uneven loadings and requires thicker distribution layer transferring the direct loads on the grid. A disadvantage of the prior art system is that it cannot be used for construction of 3D space construction modules as it does not allow joining additional elements in height. Another disadvantage is that the constructed grid structure cannot be effectively used in designing the interior spaces.
DE 803422 discloses a method for construction of buildings on a foundation comprising the steps parallel arranging to each other flat elements with slots at equal distance from each other so that the element plane is perpendicular to the foundation plane and the slots on the one of the long sides are directed upwards; intersecting at equal distances the other flat elements through the slots and fixing at an angle in order to form a horizontal grid of the floor with openings of equal dimensions. This method cannot be used for construction of 3D space building structures and for production of prefabricated construction modules. The method is labour-intensive and slow.